Motherlode |
Taking the Torch From Sarah Brady: Why Doctors Need to Ask About Guns in the Home

Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Taking the Torch From Sarah Brady: Why Doctors Need to Ask About Guns in the Home

By Catherine Musemeche April 14, 2015 8:11 amApril 14, 2015 8:11 am

Photo

Credit Illustration by KJ Dell'Antonia/Photo by Josh Anderson for The New York Times

Last week, while reading the obituary of the gun control activist Sarah Brady, I couldn’t help but be struck by the poignant juxtaposition of her tireless crusade for gun safety with the Texas Legislature’s consideration of a bill that would prevent physicians like me from inquiring about gun ownership in the home.

There is something inherently shocking about children being killed or disabled while playing, but that is exactly what can happen when there are unsecured firearms in the home. In our country, firearms, along with motor vehicle crashes and cancer, are a top cause of death in children. And perhaps the worst part of such tragedies (as everyone who takes care of wounded children has known for decades) is that, the majority of the time, the guns that are injuring and killing our children are ours. They are in our homes and our cars, in our closets and in our purses. They belong to parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings.

Each year about 7,500 children are hospitalized for treatment of gunshot wounds and 500 die. Eighty-nine percent of unintentional shooting deaths of children occur in the home, and children ages 5 to 14 living in states with the highest rates of gun ownership are 16 times as likely to die from unintentional firearm injury.

In the face of these alarming statistics, pediatricians, family practitioners and other child advocates are mobilizing to reduce the risk of injury from guns. As part of this effort, the American Academy of Pediatrics urges doctors to counsel parents who possess guns to store them where children cannot gain access and to inform families of the inherent risks of the presence of a gun in the home.

I am a pediatric surgeon in Texas, and I am concerned that this proposed law will undermine the doctor-patient relationship and keep doctors from being able to carry out their duties. We need to be able to ask families about gun ownership, and describe to them the risks that it carries for their children. Other Texas doctors are concerned as well.

“We, as physicians, ask all sorts of questions — about bike helmets and seat belts and swimming pool hazards,” Dr. Gary Floyd, a Fort Worth, Tex., pediatrician and board member of the Texas Medical Association, told The Texas Tribune. “All that’s geared mainly to how we should direct our advice.”

Dr. Floyd added that one of the “worst things” a physician has to do is explain to a family that a child has died or been permanently disabled because of a gunshot wound. He believes it is part of a doctor’s job to inquire into any possible dangers in a child’s environment.

Mr. Spitzer’s chief of staff, Robert Shulter, described the proposed bill to the Associated Press as one that would prevent information about gun ownership from “going into electronic medical records that could be accessed by other government entities. It’s basically to protect patient privacy.” But this law, as written, does not address the recording of the information. Instead, it declares “inquiry into gun ownership prohibited.”

Texas is not the first state to propose legislation that would limit gun ownership inquiry by doctors. Florida and Montana have passed versions of a medical gag law, with the Florida measure stipulating that doctors could not ask about gun ownership unless it was “medically relevant.” Attempts to pass similar legislation in eight other states have been largely unsuccessful.

It is well known that Sarah Brady suffered the personal pain of gun violence when her husband was shot in the head during an attempt on Ronald Reagan’s life. But the incident that turned her into an activist occurred later when her 5-year-old son picked up a loaded handgun found in a friend’s truck and aimed it at her. She vowed then to find a way to keep guns out of the hands of children.

Twenty-two years after the Brady Bill, that still hasn’t happened. Many of us in the medical profession are reaching out to take Sarah Brady’s torch, ready to undertake the difficult conversations about guns in the home. We would like to continue to do our part, unencumbered by laws that would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship or prevent us from fulfilling our duty to protect children from firearm injury and death.

About

We're all living the family dynamic, as parents, as children, as siblings, uncles and aunts. At Motherlode, lead writer and editor KJ Dell’Antonia invites contributors and commenters to explore how our families affect our lives, and how the news affects our families—and all families. Join us to talk about education, child care, mealtime, sports, technology, the work-family balance and much more